A vote for Harris/Walz dramatically increases our chances of survival. As human citizens.
This morning I am reeling from the news of yet another school shooting yesterday, now in a small GA community. I am certain that you are, too. That is, if you knew about it.
A gunman or, in this case, “gun-child” making their way into the hallways of a school building armed with a lethal weapon and murdering students and teachers has seemingly become a type of “brand” in America. It identifies who we are. And we barely hear about it.
America is the only country in the world where the number of guns owned far surpasses the number of citizens. We are the only country; the most powerful country, no less, that allows just about anyone, with very little effort, to purchase a human-killing weapon. It is no problem. Gun ownership is glorified and encouraged. I haven’t ever tried, but I hear that it is in fact simpler to buy a gun than it is to buy a box of cold medicine. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if that actually is the case.
Ever since the April 20th, 1999 Columbine massacre, school student shootings have become routine. Thus, if the news of yesterday’s shooting didn’t reach you; if it got swallowed up by other news of the day, namely Trump news, I find this to be tragic, but far from not believable.
We have “normalized” this. We have gotten to the point where even though it seems pointless to offer “thoughts and prayers;” even though we know full well that these so called “thoughts and prayers” may very well have led to bills and new gun laws legislation finally being proposed, the evil ones in our United States Congress have shot it down (pun intended).
Every. Single. Time.
They outright and defiantly refuse to approve and vote for strict background checks and sensible gun laws.
Again. And again. And again.
The MAGA Republicans, heartily funded by the NRA, breathlessly scream in panic to their base about how those awful Democrats are going to “take away your guns!!”. They talk about gun ownership as though a gun is as essential as the air that you breathe and the food that you eat. Guess what MAGA? It is not. What a ludicrous nation we must be looking like to the rest of the world to continue to put up with this. Since Columbine. In 1999.
One of the most well-known symptoms of trauma is forgetting. The human brain has a way of preserving its sanity by pushing aside and wiping out the memories of events that overload the system. This allows the brain to continue to function. I believe this has happened to us on a collective level. Out of a kind of necessity. It is too gruesome. It is too entirely overwhelming to consider that it now appears that nothing we do as a sane citizenry will stop the madness. Our cries repeatedly fall on deaf, uncaring ears.
In the face of the powerlessness we feel at being entirely tuned out by lawmakers dismissing our constant cries for gun laws, our brains are left to eventually tune out, if only in order to cope.
The number of American people who want gun laws and background checks to be put in place is in the 90 percentile range. It has stood that way for a very, very long time. Yet, in a country that is bought and paid for by lobbyists who prey on obscene and insatiable greed, greed has won. Every time.
And then.
More innocent children and teachers who walk into a school building for a day of learning end up in pools of blood, never to walk out again. They never return to their communities alive. Unthinkable.
All because they went to school.
I will never forget, after the Covenant School shooting in Nashville, TN Representative Tim Burchett standing on the steps of the Capitol, being asked by a reporter what he intended to do to stop this madness of school shootings. In the very immediate aftermath of the horrific lethal incident, carried out by a mentally ill female (unusual, as it is always a male), wielding an AR-15, in Tim Burchett’s home state of Tennessee, Tim’s response to the reporter’s question of what he would do? He said “nothing.”
Yes, he just stood there with a little smirk on his face and said they would do absolutely “nothing” at all about gun violence.
Initially I thought “is he was joking”? But this is no joking matter. This is infuriating. We have become so calloused by the lack of response of our government; by their utter ignorance, and with MAGA, utter defiance of any proposed laws to keep us safe, that we are shocked, but perhaps by now never surprised at breathtaking derelictions of duty that they put on full display for the American people. They are monsters.
Shortly after that, Justin Jones, Justin Pearson and Gloria Johnson joined with their TN constituents engaged in peaceful protest at the Tennessee State Capitol urging the legislature to pass sensible gun laws. An entire community in the US was once again grieving the loss of a sense of safety; grieving the loss of beloved citizens who were friends and neighbors whose lives were senselessly taken in an instant by crazed person with an assault weapons showed up to have their voices be heard.
So, how did the heavily leaning right-wing, corrupt and racist TN State legislature respond? They promptly ousted the two Justins and Gloria from their seats in government. For a time they got away with it. The people protested. Loudly. And eventually they were voted back in. But the damage had already been done. The message was sent. “Screw the people. Who cares what they want. WE choose to do nothing. Who cares that we work for them and they pay us with their tax dollars.”
There is NO excuse for this. NONE. And WE cannot let up.
A vote for Harris/Walz ticket means a government that is sane. It means a government that will NOT respond to this oft-repeated American trauma and insanity by shrugging their shoulders, proclaiming to a grieving populace that they will do “nothing” to ease the pain and the struggle.
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz will DO something, already.
OH, and let’s not forget that after a different school shooting in the Midwest, Trump response to the question of what we need to do about this school shooting violence problem was that we all need to “get over it.”
I suppose that is another version of Burchett’s we will do “nothing.”
Kamala and Tim will address gun violence in schools. Tim Walz was a school teacher for goodness sake. He is known for feeling great pride in and showing great love for his students. He is passionate about wanting to protect them.
Kamala advocated for and won big for innocent children in abusive situations in her earlier days as a prosecutor.
There are so many reasons that a vote for the Democratic ticket, straight down the ballot, equals a vote for our precious LIVES to continue until our natural deaths.
We only have a few weeks left to rally. Let’s not hand our lives over to monsters for whom your existence and that of those people you love means nothing. Nothing.
It’s time to rise up. It was time in 1999.
Let’s do this.